BBC’s Tom English answers your Scottish rugby questions

BBC Scotland’s chief sportswriter Tom English has been answering your Scottish rugby questions.

George asked: How important is it for Edinburgh to back up their win last week with a win against Cardiff? And should Glasgow be disappointed if they do not get a win on the South Africa tour?

Tom answered: It’s vital Edinburgh win not just at home to Cardiff, but away to Ospreys the following weekend. Three on the bounce would repair the damage of the horror show at Ellis Park and give them momentum. Cardiff are a dangerous team. They’ve lost the last two, though. Edinburgh should be winning this one.

Glasgow are up against the Sharks this weekend. I keep looking to see when the Sharks are going to unleash more of their big guns and I suspect we might see one or two familiar characters in their line-up this weekend.

Their squad is full of World Cup winners and it’s world class, so once they start coming into the team then they’re going to be very, very hard to beat in South Africa.

I’d imagine a win and a competitive loss would be a really pleasing return for Glasgow in the two games.

David asked: I cannot get over the way Duhan van der Merwe is so woefully underused by Edinburgh. Why is he not being used more effectively? Is it him or the coaches?

Tom answered: Edinburgh have a new midfield and they’re trying – and so far failing – to get it wide. There is a massive onus on Van der Merwe to work harder to get himself involved, though. The best wings in the world go looking for ball, they don’t just stand about waiting for it to come to them.

He excites me and frustrates me almost in equal measure. There are times in games when it looks like he couldn’t be bothered and then the ball will go wide and he’s battering people out of his way.

He needs to work a lot harder to be more influential.

Greg asked: Are Edinburgh’s centre pairing a step up from last year? I’m not convinced.

Tom answered: Matt Scott and Mosese Tuipulotu have only played two games alongside each other, so I’m minded to reserve judgment for a while yet. I think they definitely have the potential to be a lot better than last season’s combinations, but let’s wait and see.

Edinburgh were never going to play expansive rugby against the Stormers. That was always going to be an attritional, forwards-driven response to their horseing the previous week.

I’m hopeful the midfield will spark soonish. But I couldn’t predict what Edinburgh are going to do. They’re infuriating.

Andrew asked: How would you make a winnable pool for Scotland in Thursday’s Women’s World Cup draw? What’s the potential easiest and hardest options?

Tom answered: Scotland have dropped to seventh in the world rankings from fifth. They’ll be in pot two with Australia, Ireland and Italy.

The easiest draw would be France (ranked fourth), probably South Africa (ranked 12th) and Brazil (ranked 42nd).

The hardest would be host nation England (world number one and red-hot favourites to win the title), USA (the best side in pot three) and Spain, who just won WXV3.

John asked: Should the WXV have promotion and relegation? And would the men’s game benefit from this set-up too?

Tom answered: There’s already an element of promotion and relegation in WXV. Samoa finished bottom of WXV2 in 2023 and were in WXV3 this year.

From 2026 the bottom team in WXV1 will be replaced by the champions of WXV2, which will give Scotland a shot at the bigger teams, if they’re good enough to win the second tier.

I don’t think promotion and relegation would work in the Six Nations. The relegated nation would fall into a financial abyss without Six Nations money. Nobody will – or should – vote for that, in my opinion.